


Nerves

by Pompey



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Crack, Gen, The Author Regrets Nothing, shameless authorial intrusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 01:35:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16398899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pompey/pseuds/Pompey
Summary: This is the little scenario I created in my head to combat my own nerves while studying for the nursing boards.  It makes virtually no sense, since grad-student-Watson is already rooming with Holmes, they are aware of and are cool with 21st century technology, and I as time travelling author freely interact with them . . .  but if it can help even one other person not freak out over a test, then I've accomplished my goal.





	Nerves

After two consecutive hours of listening to mutterings and mumblings along the lines of, “declination of discriminative touch and proprioception” and “effects limited to the dorsal roots as evidenced by,” accompanied with nervous foot tapping, I had to intervene. If only for my sanity’s sake.

“Look, you’ll be fine. You know this stuff backwards and forwards,” I told the pale, nervous medical student. “You could practically defend your thesis in your sleep.”

Watson snorted. “But can I defend it successfully?”

“Of course you can,” Holmes said, looking up from his newspaper. “But even if can’t, you already have a Bachelor of Medicine degree so you can still legally practice medicine.” He immediately turned back to his paper after receiving twin glares from us.

“Not helping,” Watson said through clenched teeth. 

I sighed. “OK, I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this but obviously it has, so . . . let’s go for a walk.” 

“A walk isn’t going to help me keep my talking points in the correct order.”

“You never know,” I replied, reaching for my shoes. “Fresh air, change of scenery . . .”

He picked up his notepad already covered with scribbles and added one more to it. “I think it’d be a more productive use of time to review this again.”

“And I think we really should go for a walk,” I said with greater emphasis.

“Not right now.”

“Oh for God’s sake, Watson, she clearly wants to tell you something without my hearing whilst also making you take a much-needed break,” Holmes snapped. “I suggest, for everyone’s sake, you go with her.”

Watson slammed down the notepad and glared at us both. “Fine.”

I decided silence was the best route to take at the moment, given his mood and the fact that I had already won the argument. So once we were outside and moving, I waited for him to make the first move.

“All right,” he said after a minute or so. “We are walking. What did you want to tell me that you couldn’t say inside?”

I pulled out my phone. “Not tell you. Show you.”

Watson stopped short. “You’re breaking your own rule. You want to show me something about my future.”

I tapped the buttons that would pull up what I wanted. “Now do you see why I didn’t want Holmes to know? Sets a bad precedent. OK, now read what’s on the screen. Only what’s on the screen.” 

I hung onto my phone as he tilted it to reduce glare. His eyes slowly widened and a spark of relief showed in his face. Immediately I pulled the phone back. 

“OK?” I asked. 

“I think so,” he replied, sounding dazed. “But now, what if knowing the future makes me overconfident during my thesis defense?”

I closed the program and pocketed the phone. “Or, what if knowing the future gives you the confidence to defend your thesis without nerves getting in the way? That was the idea, after all.”

Slowly he nodded and we headed back inside. “You’ll be fine,” I told him again.

Watson smiled slightly. “Yes, I think I will be.”  
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“A Study in Scarlet, Part 1. (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of JOHN H. Watson, M.D., late of the Army Medical Department.) Chapter 1: Mr. Sherlock Holmes. “In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there – ”  
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Author’s note: I stole ACD’s doctoral thesis for Watson’s use here. It was on tabes dorsalis, aka syphilitic myelopathy. (Basically, how syphilis causes nerve cells to lose their ability to sense body position, vibration, and discriminative touch.)


End file.
